U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,973, issued Apr. 29, 1980 to the present inventor, illustrates such a lever press. The pawl which cooperates with the movable lever arm and if necessary is eccentrically mounted on two needle bearings engages a ratchet wheel advancing in turn, e.g. via a connecting rod, the pressing tool. In order to prevent the ratchet wheel from turning backwards after the lever arm has been swivelled, there is provided a return stop which is in the form of a pawl. After the pressing operation has been terminated, on releasing of the return stop the connecting rod is returned to the initial position by hand. After insertion e.g. of a cable bracket between the two die halves or by means of a matrix, there is necessarily produced a clearance between the tip of the pressing tool or also of the lower die half and the cable bracket, which results in that the hand lever has to be actuated at least once to cause the pressing tool to come close to the cable bracket.